Travel news

Hanoi helicopter tours take off

January 02,2020 02:25 PM

The Northern Helicopter Company under the Vietnam Helicopter Corporation has introduced the “Song Hong HeliTour” for visitors to gain a bird’s-eye view of the panoramic landscapes of Hanoi along the Red River.

Flights are conducted out of Gia Lam Airfield, 15 minutes from downtown Hanoi, on the US-made Bell 505 light helicopter. From 100 meters above, visitors can take in the unique scenery, including the historic Long Bien Bridge, Co Loa Citadel, Bat Trang pottery village, and the new urban areas of the city, among others.

The tours were launched following the success of helicopter flights over Ha Long Bay, introduced last May. The flights add a new offering to Vietnam’s tourism services and promotes the country’s image around the world from a new angle.

Hoi An to pilot e-tickets at local tourist sites

December 05,2019 02:56 PM

Authorities in Hoi An ancient town have approved a project for an e-ticket system for entry into the UNCESCO World Heritage Site.

With investment of VND5.7 billion ($246,000), the project will be implemented in two phases. The first will be carried out to June 2020, with four e-ticket counters installed at Song Hoai Square, Hang Dieu, Le Loi, and Bach Dang Streets, and 21 local attractions. The second phase, running to December 2020, will see the e-ticket system installed at other ticket counters and parking lots.

The project aims to improve the ticketing system to make it more convenient, fast, and accurate, according to the local people’s committee. Information technology will be further applied in sightseeing activities and tourism management.

Visa exemptions extended for visitors from 8 countries

January 02,2020 02:23 PM

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has recently announced that Vietnam will continue visa exemptions offered to citizens from Russia, Japan, South Korea, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Belarus to the end of 2022.

The exemptions, which were first introduced in 2015, would have expired at the end of 2019. They apply to citizens from these countries staying in Vietnam for less than 15 days.

South Korea is the leading source of visitors among the eight countries, with nearly 3.7 million arriving in the first eleven months of 2019, according to the General Statistics Office. Japan and Russia followed, with 872,000 and 585,000, respectively. Vietnam attracted a record 18 million foreign visitors in the 2019, a year-on-year increase of 16.2 per cent.

First-ever Tet festival to be held in HCMC

December 05,2019 02:56 PM

The first private library in Vietnam on the American War has been opened to the public by a retired general, which archives and exhibits over 10,000 books, journals, and publications. The library is on the 2nd Floor, Almaz Market, Vinhomes Riverside, in Hanoi’s Long Bien district.

Documents and objects at the library were collected by former Deputy Minister of Public Security Nguyen Van Huong and his friends. Most are in English from American authors, including politicians, historians, governmental officials, and military commanders, who have studied the war, providing a rich and precious documentary resource with different perspectives for researchers and people interested in the history of the war.

The library also showcases digitalized maps of Vietnam and Southeast Asia from ancient times and in the modern era, two cartographic collections of Vietnam’s territory drawn by the US’s Cadastral Agency and Army during wartime, 100 posters depicting global support for the struggle of the Vietnamese people for peace and independence, stamp collections issued by Vietnam and other countries to mark major historical events in Vietnam, and collected artifacts that are personal belongings and military equipment of Vietnamese combatants taken by American troops on the battlefield.

The library will work with other agencies in the future to produce films about the war as well as showcase war objects and items to help families of missing Vietnamese soldiers find them.